Eric,
This is indeed exciting news. If I or the DVSP can be of any assistance please let us know.
In thinking about it and what is entailed I imagine some additional information would be wanted such as:
1. Does the 10 feet of vertical include the in water depth?
2. What depth into the salt water will the lift need to ravel, platform awash, 1 foot under 3 feet under?
3. How far below the feet of the device will the platform have to go. In other words in the standard swimming pool situation, which this will not be, the lift would have to go about 3 feet below the level of the body of the lifting device base on the pool deck.
4. Weight capacity of the lift? Some potential users, due to the difficulty in exercising, and/or medications may be 300 pounds or more without scuba gear.
5. Is a single platform lifting two individuals desired over two platforms lifting a single individual each? I imagine the single person lift would be potentially commercially available, the double lift would be a custom job or a conversion.
6. Do you want a chair (with capacity to accept the dive tank while providing vertical and lateral stability for those without abdominal muscle control) attached to the platform the diver will transfer to on shore and then be lowered into the water, or do you want a platform where a submersible wheelchair can be rolled (and then we have the potential issue of the chair falling off the platform in the water and damaging the delicate environment below). I am envisioning that you will transfer from the street wheelchair to an airline boarding type of wheelchair (skinny one made to go down the isle) modified to accept the SCUBA tank if they are to be already geared up, for the trip from the staging area to the waters edge given how narrow things are and the desire to keep the area sterile.
Given your intended delicate environment I imagine a custom design will be done hooking in to the existing steel support structure. I am picturing a set of twin I-beams with a roller on the inside at the top and a lower roller on the outside at the bottom with the platform extending below the lowest roller a distance of depth of water penetration plus 1 foot or two to keep any lubricants out of the water, with a hinge on either side of the two I-beams (about 2 feet apart)extending past the I-beams where the platform would rotate 90-180 degrees to facilitate placing the individual on the platform (chair). Alternative Design, platform as wide as you need to accommodate two water wheelchairs (7 feet) with the I-beams at each end.
